


Just don't think about it

by Ectobruisebosom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post S6, Sheith Flower Exchange 2018, cheers omg, slightly angsty because these dumb boys cant communicate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 16:11:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15271263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ectobruisebosom/pseuds/Ectobruisebosom
Summary: Canonverse hanahaki, take place from s3 on!





	Just don't think about it

**Author's Note:**

> I was stepping in as a pitch hitter for renrenners, and I figured a fic would be good for this.   
> It...got longer than I thought it would, and took longer than I thought it would.   
> Ren, I hope you enjoy it!

Ever since the BoM trials, it seemed like Shiro was constantly choking on something. Whenever he looked at Keith, he would cover his mouth and start coughing. Almost everyone could notice and see it when they saw it happening, everyone but Keith. 

Forget-Me-Not petals seeped between his fingers and he coughed again, turning and trudging out. 

“I don’t get it,” Keith gazed after him before swallowing hard. “Ugh,” he could feel his own petals rising and shook his head, turning back to the card game with Pidge. 

“Dude,” her eyes narrowed behind large glasses, slowly shaking her head. “I don’t know how you’re so smart and so stupid at the same time,” she tsked, tossing down a card. 

Keith opened his mouth to respond when a primrose petal fluttered past his lips. Turning his head away, he gagged before a few more fluttered to the seat next to him. 

“Ah, jeez,” Pidge reached and rubbed his back gently, Keith holding his chest a moment as he coughed. The pain kept ebbing and flowing, it was like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to do. 

“I think I’m going to join the Blade of Mamora,” Keith said when the feeling passed, flexing his hand against the seat. “Maybe then I’ll stop feeling like this,” he panted a little, sitting up and turning back to the card game, tossing down one of his own. 

“Is that really what you want to do?” Pidge gazed at him over her cards, then she lowered her hands and drew her brows together. “Everyone would really miss you,” she added, and he exhaled before coughing again. 

“I know, but I also want to find out more about my family,” he said, watching her toss down a card before he tossed down one of his own. 

“We can’t stop you if that’s what you want,” she said, tossing down another card. Their hands were thinning. 

“I know,” he tossed down his final card. “I’m going to pack,” he said, moving to stand. Reaching, he ruffled Pidge’s hair and smiled a little, coughing again behind his hand. Another primrose petal fluttered down. “See you.”

 

\--

 

Shiro couldn’t stop vomiting Forget-Me-Nots. It was a miracle that he and Keith had managed to avoid coughing on each other when he left, but now...everything was worse. Coughing harder into his hand, petals were fluttering like leaves on a windy day. Spitting them out, he practically had a bouquet at his knees, holding his chest as he spat. 

“This needs to get under control,” he murmured, chewing a bit on a petal before spitting it out. Breathing deeply, he pushed his thoughts down. 

He needed to stop thinking of Keith. 

That seemed to be when most of the pain hit, so he had to stop it. Breathing evenly, he felt the pain slowly fade. That was right. Just think of everyone else on the ship. 

_ But Keith wasn’t there. _

Groaning, he leaned forwards and coughed, more flowers falling from his lips. Breathing raggedly, he looked up and groaned softly, moving to get the water pouch he kept for when he got like this. Shakily sipping, he swallowed hard before spitting out a ball of forget-me-not petals. Sitting on his bed, he held his chest a moment before grabbing his book of space-sudoku. 

Lance had mercilessly teased him when he saw Shiro with it, but that had changed when he saw the petals stuck in Shiro’s mouth. 

Starting to write in the numbers, the pain began fading until he was comfortably writing in answers. 

This would just have to start being his normal. 

 

*

 

Nearly three years without Shiro had been painful at times. Keith at least managed to stop vomiting by the time he met his mother, though the occasional petal dropped from his lips from time to time. 

The two years on the back of the whale seeing the memories had primroses tumbling from him with a fierce determination, almost painful with how hard his feelings hit him. Spitting them out on the ground around their shelter, the duo damn near had a bouquet all around them. 

“Keith…” Krolia watched, her hands on his back and the back of his head. “Just breathe through it, you’ll be okay,” she soothed gently. Shudderingly, Keith gasped around the petals as his head migrated onto his mother’s lap. It hurt, his chest was practically on fire, his mouth full of petals.    
That memory had been painful. The first time Keith realized that he liked Shiro, their time in the Garrison. Taking another shuddering breath, he coughed hard and hurled more primrose petals from his lips. 

“I just wish he loved me back,” his voice dragged out hoarsely, and then he immediately winced at how desperate that sounded. “Or in the way I do, I…” he gasped and hurled more petals from his lips. “Oh, mom, I love him,” Keith admitted, tears rising in his eyes.    
Krolia leaned and embraced him, trying to soothe the pain from him with her touch. 

“I know you do. It’s okay, just breathe through it. It’ll stop eventually,” the low tone of his mother’s voice was so comforting - Keith never realized he missed hearing it until she was guiding him through the pain of hanahaki. 

Panting, he could feel petals fluttering and coating his throat. Another gag and cough and they were out, fluttering in the slight breeze. Breathing slowly, he evened out, shutting his eyes.    
They would be able to ride this out together, Keith realized. He wasn’t alone in this anymore. 

 

*

 

The fight had been brutal. At first it was just startling, but he wanted to help Shiro. Even if his chest hurt and primrose petals were blooming and sticking to his throat, he wanted to help him. It wasn’t easy to fight with that, and it was starting to show. 

 

Grunting as he hit the platform, he rolled over and panted, breaths shuddering from the primrose petals. It had been so easy before when Shiro was so cute, stuttering weakly when he had come back and looked so happy to meet Krolia. 

But then he had choked on something, Forget-Me-Nots fluttering from his lips. 

Forget-Me-Not. 

_ True Love.  _

Gasping at the realization, he turned onto his stomach and vomited, primroses falling without abandon. Weakly crawling to his sword, he groaned when he couldn’t reach without collapsing.    
Forget-Me-Not. Forget me not. 

Shiro was coughing up forget-me-nots this whole time. 

Shuddering, he lifted his head when he heard a familiar noise, turning onto his back and jerking his blade out and over, blocking Shiro.    
“Shiro!” he panted out before he swallowed hard. He felt something come up and he shuddered hard. “Shiro, please! You’re my brother-” that wasn’t working. In fact, he was sure he saw Shiro’s jaw work as he held something back. 

“- _ I love you. _ ” 

The word was followed by a gag and he turned his head, gasping.    
“Just let go, Keith. You don’t have to fight anymore.” 

The searing pain on his skin hurt, marring Shiro’s following words and he screamed. All of the pain from his love, all of the pain from the fight, it came bursting out and he sliced off that  _ damned  _ arm. Hearing Shiro cry out was painful and he gasped hard, shakily standing and gazing at him. God, he felt like he was about to cry. 

“ _ Keith… _ ” 

Never has his name been called so softly, and something inside hurt so damn badly he couldn’t respond. The two jolted as the platform fell, but Keith’s arm snapped out. He gripped onto Shiro, panting. His chest felt like it was on fire, pain worse than before but he just couldn’t let him go.

Instead, he just thought back on their memories. The first time they met. The first time they spoke one on one. The way Shiro had smiled at him so long ago and never stopped looking at him that way. 

God, how could he have ever thought of him as a brother? 

Opening his eyes, he gazed down at Shiro. At his form, at the way he washed into the light. Shiro.  _ Shiro.  _ Keith loved him, and he was starting to realize that maybe Shiro loved him too. 

They mirrored each other. Shiro kept him grounded.

The machinery above exploded and they were falling, but Keith’s gaze never left Shiro. 

“Shiro, I love you,” he breathed into the open air, into the dead silence. Watching him moments longer, he could forget about the burn in his chest. He could watch Shiro as they fell, he could watch his body become bathed in light. He shut his eyes when the light became too bright, his chest blooming. 

His eyes opened as his lips parted, watching him. 

Closing his eyes again, he was enveloped in darkness. 

 

*

 

“You saved us,” he murmured to the Lion, gazing out at the panelling. He heard Shiro groan and turned, moving to crawl over to him. “Shiro,” he spoke softly, pulling his head onto his lap. “Shiro,” he breathed softly, parting his lips. Spitting out a red petal, he watched it flutter onto Shiro’s cheek.    
What was that? 

He had never heard of a flower changing. He wondered what that meant. Rubbing Shiro’s cheek gently, he watched him as he laid there. “Shiro,” he murmured, closing his eyes then. 

Astrial plane. 

This wasn’t Shiro. 

His heart hurt in the astrial plane, even more when he saw Shiro again. When Shiro said he had died - he didn’t know what to think. But Shiro -  _ Shiro.  _

 

*

 

...It was a relief when he was alive again. When his hair turned into the color of starlight and Shiro leaned on  _ him…. _

Keith managed to keep it together enough before they got back into the Lion, alone and together. Inhaling, he gazed at Shiro before he coughed, covering his mouth. That woke the other man, his eyes opening to reveal those honeyed-brown eyes. “Keith,” he murmured, watching him. 

Aforementioned male coughed a bit harder before he heaved, rosebuds falling onto Shiro’s chest. His eyes focused on them before he looked up at Keith, his expression softening. Turning his head,  _ Shiro  _ spat out a rosebud, too. 

Mutual flowers. 

“Sh-Shiro…?” he trembled slightly, but his eyes were wide. They had the same flower. 

_ Devotion.  _

“Keith, I love you too.” 

Keith’s breath hitched and he gripped onto Shiro. He had to - he just had to, he had to say it…! “I love you, Takashi,” he burst out, a primrose petal and a rosebud petal fluttering when he did. “I love you, I...I love you,” he didn’t know what else to say. His eyes were wide, glimmering in the lights of the lion. “Takashi,” saying his name was so goddamn intimate but he needed to know, “you’re my everything. I love you from the bottom of my heart…” he trembled, but he didn’t realize that some of his shaking was from Shiro. His honeyed eyes never faltered from him, his expression softer before he sat up. 

“Keith,” his voice was tender again, soft and sweet which made Keith want to melt, “I love you too. I love you from the bottom of my heart,” he repeated back. 

A fumble. 

Keith’s mouth pressed clumsily to Shiro’s, unused to pressing his lips to someone else’s. Shiro barely seemed any better, his mouth parted under Keith’s before pressing hard enough their teeth clicked a moment, then it was gone. 

And then back, Keith’s hands cupping Shiro’s face and pulling him close again, the burning pain in his chest gone. The pressure, what had been sitting on his chest for nearly four years now, it was gone. He felt lighter, freer, his mouth pressing into the man who he loved, his body pressing to him. Shiro’s arm held him close, pressing him in deeper and Keith realized that there was nowhere else he would rather be. 


End file.
